check-in: figurines and sewing

Even though I haven't been creating something everyday, lately I feel I've produced more work than in a long time. 

 I made some polymer clay teacups in the Raku Ware or Rakuyaki style.  At first, I was afraid of making them too sloppy, but then I remembered I was making Raku Ware and imperfection was kind of its characteristic. 

 The polymer clay was formed around the shaft of my needle tool.  Because I did not think to cover the shaft with talc first, for the 2 cups in the front, pushing the clay tube off, resulted in these "melting" lips at the top of the cups, which turned out rather nice, after some trimming.  The recessed grooves were made by turning the clay tube on the metal shaft, while pushing a round-ended ear-cleaning tool into it.  The tool kept jumping, so the grooves aren't perfectly straight.

 The 3 teacups in the back were made after covering the metal shaft with talc.  Plus, I rolled the handle of a small paintbrush onto the clay tube, while it turned on the metal shaft.  Because the side of the paintbrush handle was rolled onto the clay, instead of pushing its rounded ended into the clay tube, there wasn't any jumping of the tool off the clay, so the grooves ended up straighter. 

 Then I finally got around to trying that idea from Pinterest, to make a bag out of old jeans.  But I had a hand-me-down pair of short pants instead.  The handles are trimmed cuffs from hemmed pants, and the longer strap is an old belt.  Hopefully all the custom features I added will make this bag useful enough, so I don't have to periodically hunt for new bags anymore.  It can fit letter paper sized cases, like a messenger bag, but it doesn't have those flaps that hit my face when I open the bag.  Plus, it's got the smaller handles, for when my shoulders hurt too much for the larger strap. 

 But the majority of what I've been putting effort into lately as been figure photography. 
 I used it in place of writing an actual fanfic.  I was too lazy to write a fanfic about Yukimura being a lead zookeeper in charge of big cats, while Masamune becomes the zoo’s new resident veterinarian—-So I shot this photo instead!  @.@; Now I realize the nametag probably would have been a better reference to "Sengoku Basara", if the zoo was named "Basara Zoo" instead of "Sengoku Zoo".  Oops.  Another oops:  I had to add in the nametag from a later photo during my photoshoot.  This photo turned out the best, but originally didn't have the nametag in the set-up.  I would have liked to replicate this shot, after I had made the name tag, but my figurines fell down and a piece even broke.  So I had to end the photoshoot and just Photoshop in the name tag. 

based on this drawing:  http://tsunbasa.tumblr.com/post/74989852620/by

 I've begun this streak of a particular type of figure photography:  Re-creating drawings.  Lately on the Tumblr stream for the "datesana" tag, there have been some fan-art drawings that coincidentially feature props and costumes that I have in the form of figurine parts and miniatures.  When I realized I had all the same props, I just had to see how closely I could re-create this fan-art.  I didn't get it exactly like the drawing, but working within the posing constraints of the figures, I think I did my best to make the photos look nice, in and of themselves.

Another drawing that I have the same Nendoroid parts for?  Challenge accepted. 

based on this drawing:  http://dragonmune.tumblr.com/post/74094073093

For the photo where Masamune and Yukimura wear the same kimono/hakama outfit, I only had one set of that clothing.  I actually had to do separate photoshoots, then splice them together.  Since I was already doing some Photoshop, I did the same for the background flowers, instead of doing it in-camera.  Rather than use my fake flower props, I Photoshopped in my old photos of my neighborhood's pear tree blossoms.  Then, I modified them with the "find edges" Filter and darkened some of them. 

 

This past Figure Friday Challenge was themed "faces".  I needed to do a photo inventory of my Nendoroid and Chibi-Arts faceplates anyway.  (Makes customizing my photoshoots so much easier.)   

My dad thought I was making a plate of desserts.  ^.^

Coincidentally, there was a recent episode of DNews that boiled down facial expressions to "happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, disgusted".  http://youtu.be/wW0PaKOXxQI  I thought I'd try to organize my Nendoroid and Chibi-Arts faceplates by type of expression.  I think some of the fear, surprise, and disgust faceplate categorization is debatable though.   

 

I discovered that I had to add some new categories:  neutral; very happy (laughing).  I seem to recall there being a whole other word in Japanese for "smiling very intensely/earnestly", that sometimes gets translated as "laugh", but is used the same as "smile".  I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
I had to Photoshop the background into a consistent black, since my camera flash glared too much in the center.